Expanding my menu

[Champdude21]

Well - I had first added Body Glow salt scrub massages since I am studying the aromatherapy stuff so much lately - the salt scrubs are quick, easy to make and everyone loves them.

Now that I've finished up some additional training in different spa techniques (Yeah for Spa Bodywork Guide!) I am thinking I will expand my menu to my clients. I'll probably add one new thing each month until I get it set the way I want.

What I am thinking is four basic spa treatments that I offer year round:
The Body Glow exfoliation, a Mud Coccoon, an herbal wrap and a Scalp massage/hair treatment with facial massage while the hair mask is processing (since I work at a hair salon it only makes sense to tap into that aspect of the work. : )

BUT - I really like some of the creative ideas I've seen around and I KNOW I will get bored with just four "same ole, same ole". So - what I am thinking is to offer a seasonal option of each of the four basic treatments. The four basics will stay the same year round - but I could have one additional option depending on the season (and my mood)! Like doing a "Summer Fruit Salad Body Coccoon" instead of the mud and make my own product with clay, avocado, papaya and honey, etc. More of a summer moisturizing treatment. Or a "Cider and Spice" herbal wrap instead of the regular herb blend using cider and mulling spices. Or a "Sweetheart Chocolate Scrub" for a body glow treatment.

That way I can be creative and....well...fickle, as I so often am, without having a menu that is out of control or too expensive to maintain. *laughing*

Anyone ever done anything like that? What types of "extra" treatments do you provide in a dry room/massage setting?

I have had a really good response to the body glow treatment - I have good retail sales afterwards and my clients love that I make the products myself personalized just for them. I also have clients driving past three or four other places and from 30-40 minutes away to come to me in the middle of NOWHERE becuase of the "extras" I offer.

Anywho - Just rambling, thinking outloud and wondering what you guys do.

Angela

 

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I should mention that the other thought I had for doing it like that is that I could have the standard menu printed up as a trifold brochure that looks really professional, etc and get the bulk discount. It would be easy to create a single insert with the "Seasonal Sensations" listed that just slipped inside. If I had a slow month I wouldn't be throwing away any pricey marketing tools but rather just switching out a few inserts.

Anyway - It was just the thought that I had. I wondered if anyone had tried seasonal spa treatments and how it worked out. Were clients confused? Did you have higher repeat clients becuase they wanted to try "the newest thing"?

Angela

 

[kend]

These are really hard to pull of in a dry environment.

You don't want any mud or salt left on the body when you do your massage, so it takes lots and lots of wet, warm towels to clean off your clients

 

[Smooth Criminal]

I do these regularly in a dry environment and don't find it hard to get all the salt/mud off. And my clients LOVE the hot towels. In fact, I have a shower and I prefer to do hot towels on my clients rather than send them to the shower.

They're so relaxed they frequently can't effectively remove all the product in the shower. And they're paying a premium price, they shouldn't have to. To me, that's work for them.

My mud wrap client said to me after the treatment "You could just lay hot towels on me and charge me $100" while laughing. They LOVE the hot towels. I also keep a couple extra ones in there and tell them "If you find any extra salt/mud on you, there's a hot towel in there for you to use to wipe off with." Oh, and I always do the massage first, and the mud/salt afterwards. If for some reason they insist on having the massage last, I would send them to shower between treatments, (or strongly discourage it if I didn't have a shower)

I think your insert idea sounds great! I too like to mix up my treatments, but I usually just post the new stuff on my website, and then verbally tell my regular clients that I've got a new treatment coming up. That works for me because I generally don't hand out too many paper advertising materials.

I did just get some fancy color glossy postcard menus printed up at vistaprint, to leave at local B&Bs. It was $15 for 100. Not too cheap, but I change my menu so often, and I don't hand out very many, I didn't want to print up a lot. (if you do vistaprint, make sure to search for coupons first. I almost always find 50% coupons or better)

I haven't tried seasonal spa treatments, but I do have this one client who always wants what her friends get. I give her friend a shirodhara and she wants one! I give her other friend a deep tissue and she wants one! I know that's not exactly related, but it's a similar phenomena to the "newest thing" idea. If it's gimmicky and her friend got it, SHE WANTS IT! lol

 

[evirustheslaye]

These are really hard to pull of in a dry environment.

You don't want any mud or salt left on the body when you do your massage, so it takes lots and lots of wet, warm towels to clean off your clients

I've been doing the salt scrubs for months now in the dry room and they love it and I've not had any trouble removing the salt at all. I just use a towel under the legs and arms to catch any salt that falls and when I use hot, wet towels to take the salt off I pull my salt-catcher towels off as well. No problemo.

I don't imagine it would be much different doing an herbal wrap especially which isn't as "messy" on the body. I'll have to play with the mud cocoon.

The hair mask/scalp massage is easy to shampoo out since I'm at a hair salon (the cosmetologist shampoos them out - not me).

I just didn't know whether people had had success with "changing" menus.

Angela

 

[chezmund]

Just a personal preference - but Cocoon sounds a bit greusome for me. I think of spider eggs every time I see it on this thread (even though they aren't really in a cocoon. :shock: Possibly consider a different term ... maybe "wrap"?

Then again, maybe everyone else is good with it.

 

[Banana Chicken Head]

I'm open to suggestions but I was trying to think of a way to differentiate between a treatment where the product is applied directly to the client's body (mud, honey, shea butter, etc painted on their skin) and where the sheet is soaked in the product like with an herbal wrap type of treatment.

Any ideas for clarifying the difference? :-D

Angela

 

[joanne342]

When I do mud treatments, I also wrap the body with a thermal blanket and then layer blankets on top to heat them up, assuming the heat is opening pores and helping induce sweat to release some toxins...

If you aren't using anything to wrap them up, like if you're just putting the product on and letting them sit, unwrapped, you could always call it a "masque" or something. or "Mud Treatment"

The word cocoon mildly surprised me...not in a bad way at all. I've never seen anyone use it in that way so I was all "Oh, a cocoon. Neat." My word association with that is butterflies and transformation and such. Maybe if you put a picture of a butterfly near the wording on your brochure, that could do away with potenial spider associations?

When I describe to clients how the treatment works, I usually wind up telling them, "...then I wrap you up like a burrito!" lol. I've never really liked that expression, but it's mildly amusing, very descriptive, and doesn't seem to be offensive...I might try using the word cocoon next time and see how that feels.

 

[ladybug]

When I do mud treatments, I also wrap the body with a thermal blanket and then layer blankets on top to heat them up, assuming the heat is opening pores and helping induce sweat to release some toxins...

If you aren't using anything to wrap them up, like if you're just putting the product on and letting them sit, unwrapped, you could always call it a "masque" or something. or "Mud Treatment"

The word cocoon mildly surprised me...not in a bad way at all. I've never seen anyone use it in that way so I was all "Oh, a cocoon. Neat." My word association with that is butterflies and transformation and such. Maybe if you put a picture of a butterfly near the wording on your brochure, that could do away with potenial spider associations?

When I describe to clients how the treatment works, I usually wind up telling them, "...then I wrap you up like a burrito!" lol. I've never really liked that expression, but it's mildly amusing, very descriptive, and doesn't seem to be offensive...I might try using the word cocoon next time and see how that feels.

Cocoon is the word that Anne Williams used in her book "Spa Bodywork Guide for Massage Therapists". Egg sacs are spiders - cocoons are transformation, renewal, etc. :-D

Let me know how it works out for you!

Incidentally - where do you get your mud product from? You said you use hot towels to remove easily and that's what I plan to do so I'm open to suggestions of products that work well for you. I also plan to wrap them during the mud and other body treatments.

Angela

 

[Van]

I know the hot towels do work for salt scrubs but I had it done in wet rooms where I didn't have to get up to get washed off. There is a shower hose coming out of the wall. Anyways, after that, nothing compares.

Of course not everyone can install a wet room!

 

[suzie]

I had previously been using the Lotus Touch premixed green clay from Massagewarehouse. Though it's tons more expensive when you buy it wet, they have it mixed to a really great consistency for removing. Very thin. For me, mixing it can be a crapshoot, sometimes coming out too thick to easily remove.

But I have recently found a mud I like a whole lot better, and goes with my Ayurvedic theme. It's from Tarika and it's called an Herbal Clay and Body Masque (scroll down). It has tons of herbs in it, and it mixes up easily. I use two tablespoons of dry powder...could probably use a bit less to cover the whole body. I mix it in a small rubber bowl and use a lot of water, so it's thin. But I've found with this stuff, even if I layer it on pretty thickly (it looks opaque and I'm going "sheesh, I hope I can get that off!") It still comes off pretty easily. Also, because of the herbal content, it has a slightly granular feel and I use the mud itself to scrub the body as I'm applying it for some exfoliation. Then I just leave it on. It's like having a mud and a scrub, but with only one product. Score! (You can get a wholesale account with this company and buy the mud in bulk, making it comparable in price to other muds)

and yes, I hadn't thought about the vichy shower, which would surely be better than a regular shower, and definitely would rival the hot towels. Alas, I was looking in the Universal Catalog the other day and saw a very basic vichy shower table. It was only $18,000.00!! Put that on the list, ha.

 

[smedrik]

These are really hard to pull of in a dry environment.

Not true.

I was trained specifically to do wraps and scrubs in a dry room setting. I have no problems removing all of the product.

I've had treatments in a wet room and to be honest, I prefer having the product removed with the hot towels. It just feels so much nicer. Plus, I can't stand the way the vichy shower thing always sprays in my face (no matter how much they try to keep it from doing that.)

Just a personal preference - but Cocoon sounds a bit greusome for me.

I sometimes jokingly refer to coccoon wraps as "burrito wraps"

:

Not in front of the clients of course.


Angie

 

[Littleboots]

I sometimes jokingly refer to coccoon wraps as "burrito wraps".

Yep, I too have to admit, I have told clients (when working in a "wrap" environment in the past), we'll wrap you up like a burrito.

I probably should have been more glitzy and said "We'll begin to envelope your body into a warm layer of towels and insulated foil."





Here is a minor list of items picked up from an online thesaurus.

Main Entry: wrap
Part of Speech: verb
Definition: surround
Synonyms: absorb, bandage, bind, bundle, bundle up, camouflage, cloak, clothe, cover, drape, encase, encircle, enclose, enfold, envelop, fold, gift-wrap*, hide, immerse, invest, mask, muffle, pack, package, protect, roll up, sheathe, shelter, shroud, swaddle, swathe, twine, veil, wind

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Main Entry: cocoon
Part of Speech: verb
Definition: protect
Synonyms: cushion, encase, envelop, insulate, pad, swaddle, swathe, wrap

Main Entry: insulate
Part of Speech: verb
Definition: protect
Synonyms: close off, coat, cocoon, cushion, cut off, inlay, island, isolate, keep apart, line, seclude, separate, sequester, set apart, shield, tape, treat, wrap



Here's an old thread with links to an older thread that you'll probably really enjoy. Adding spa treatments to MT practice

 

[PEPSI-cola]

I like the word coccoon. When I was scanning this thread, that jumped out at me, and I thought "ooh, fun!"

 

[rotavatore]

Alas, I was looking in the Universal Catalog the other day and saw a very basic vichy shower table. It was only $18,000.00!! Put that on the list, ha.

Here are some much less expensive:

http://www.spaequip.com/store/Vichy-Showers

Personally I find dry room spa treatments to be irritating to perform. Perhaps because I don't get a request often enough to feel very efficient with product removal. To me it's a complete mess.

 

[st.]

Well I got my order from Mountain Rose this week - Oh my! So lovely - I can't wait. My brochures are in, my stuff is here, my husband has an appointment for a mud, seaweed, herbal tea wrap day (my tester-outer!) on my next day off and my envelopes are all addressed (but only half have stamps yet)! Woohoo!

After 7 years of NO spa stuff at all I have to admit - I'm a little excited about expanding my offerings and branching out a little bit more. Now that I'm totally and completley working for myself in my OWN space I get the option of trying new things instead of feeling like I have to take/do what the chiro or fitness center director expects me to or would most benefit from. Fun, fun!

Angela

 

[newroom]

Congrats and good luck with the spa stuff.